Verse 2 of Genesis chapter 1: "And the earth was without form and void, darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Darkness is from the word choshek (Strongs 2821) meaning dark, darkness, figuratively misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness, night, obscurity. This does not sound like something God would create. It does sound like something God could use to bring forth something beautiful.
Face is from paniym (Strongs Hebrew 6440), meaning surface, before and behind, toward, in front of, forward, formerly, from beforetime, before or in front of, before,countenance, to the front of, in the presence of, in the face
of, at the face or front of, from the presence of, from before, from
before the face of.
Deep (Strongs Hebrew 8415) - tehown-deep, depths, deep places, abyss, the deep, sea, water making a noise, a great quantity of waters and wave.
Here we have a picture of chaos. This is a situation without God. An earth that has no form, it is chaos. It's dark, filled with misery, death and wickedness. There are a lot of waters, which are noisy. It goes to the deep places, all the way to the abyss.
This is a scenario begging for help from God. I find it interesting that this is how our lives can become. When we make decisions based on our own ideas, or the "advice" of others. When we do what we think is best in our own eyes, we may find ourselves in the deep darkness. When we call upon the name of the Lord, He can move on our behalf.
It's my opinion that something happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. I don't know what, but I think that what God creates is good. Something happened that took what was good and made it chaotic, wicked and full of death. The second half of the verse is full of good news.
Forgetting: The wilderness of my life in the past.
Remembering: God has so much planned for me.
Read Jeremiah 9
Showing posts with label deep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deep. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Day 12: Genesis 1:1-1:2 gap?
Is there a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2? Many theologians believe that there is. In Genesis 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth. In verse 1:2, the earth is without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. The word for form is tohuw (Strongs hebrew 8414). It means lie waste, desolate, worthless. It can also mean vain, confusion, nothing or wilderness.
Void is from bohuw (Strongs 922). It means empty, a vacuity, empty or void.
This poses the question, did God create something so undesirable? Perhaps the question is could He create something that was worthless? God can do anything, so He could. But would He? I think the argument could be made that it is presented in an order. If this were the case verse 2 should come before verse 1. However, if that were the case then where did the formless and void place come from?
I believe that God is a God of order. So perhaps verse 1 is a statement of what happened and verse 2 begins the description of how it happened.
No matter which way you believe, you have to deal with something worthless being there.
If there is a gap, what happened during that time? How long was the gap? Why didn't God intervene? I do not believe we will ever know this side of eternity.
If there was a gap, it may help to bridge the distance between the age of the world, as seen by the world and the church view. It could be a day or millions of years.
As this is not something that I consider as a doctrinal issue, I mention it. I tend to subscribe to the gap theory. I think it is likely that the fall of satan and 1/3 of the angels happened during this time. When he was cast out of heaven, Isaiah states that lucifer did weaken the nations. (Isaiah 14:12) He was cast out into the earth (Revelation 12:9). Revelation 12:12 says 'woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time.'
Void is from bohuw (Strongs 922). It means empty, a vacuity, empty or void.
This poses the question, did God create something so undesirable? Perhaps the question is could He create something that was worthless? God can do anything, so He could. But would He? I think the argument could be made that it is presented in an order. If this were the case verse 2 should come before verse 1. However, if that were the case then where did the formless and void place come from?
I believe that God is a God of order. So perhaps verse 1 is a statement of what happened and verse 2 begins the description of how it happened.
No matter which way you believe, you have to deal with something worthless being there.
If there is a gap, what happened during that time? How long was the gap? Why didn't God intervene? I do not believe we will ever know this side of eternity.
If there was a gap, it may help to bridge the distance between the age of the world, as seen by the world and the church view. It could be a day or millions of years.
As this is not something that I consider as a doctrinal issue, I mention it. I tend to subscribe to the gap theory. I think it is likely that the fall of satan and 1/3 of the angels happened during this time. When he was cast out of heaven, Isaiah states that lucifer did weaken the nations. (Isaiah 14:12) He was cast out into the earth (Revelation 12:9). Revelation 12:12 says 'woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time.'
Forgetting: That I think I know about God. That I think I know all His ways and wisdom.
Remembering: God's ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts are not my thoughts. He promises to give me all things pertaining to life and godliness.
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